10 would like to know that trains also bank for the turns in their majestic flight? How many of you ladies, please? Would you mind raising your hands, those of you who would like to know? . . . The year is turning. 1931. 1932. Maybe things will pick up a little. We will get out at the next platform, see if we can find things pick- ing up any. Look for the crocus of recovery. Sooky ANOTHER of our practically in- Il. imitable boy-and-dog stories: The parents of a young son who had been deeply moved by the film "Skippy" took him, as a Christmas surprise, to the sequel to that picture, called "Sooky." On the way home afterward, the youth was enthusiastic about "Sooky." "Bet- ter' n 'Skippy,' even," he observed. "It ends happier." "But it doesn't end happier, J ames," said his mother. "Doesn't Sooky's mother die?" "Oh, " O d J " b 0 ' Sk o , h sure, sal ames, ut In IPPy t e dog died." The Dreier Case M R. THEODORE DREIER lives now at Sunken Meadow, Fort Sal- onga, Long Island, in the summer and at Lake Mizell, Winter Park, Florida, in the winter. Thus identified, you won't get him mixed up with Theodore Dreiser. All right. Not long ago a letter from Cartier's, the jewellers, reached Mr. Dreier at Fort Salonga. I t said Cartier's had been trying to lo- cate him for more than four years, in order to return an umbrella he had left in the store. Mr. Dreier hadn't the slightest recollection of having left an y umbrella in the store, but he re- plied, in a pleasant little note, and in due time came a lovely box in which, all done up in the very finest tissue paper, was an old, plain, inexpensive bumbershoot. For the life of him, Mr. Dreier couldn't re- member leaving it, or even ownIng 1t, but a small tag at- tached to the um- brella gave him a clue. "Left Apr. 2, 1927," it read. The happening so interested Mr. Dreier that he called at Cartier's, and this is the story that he got: April 2, 1927, was a muggy day. Mr. Dreier had gone in there to buy a jewel. When he left, he left the umbrella be- hind him. A vigilant clerk darted after him, but it was too late: the city had swallowed Theodore Dreier. Car- tier's at once placed the umbrella in their vaults and began an effort to locate the owner. They had his name, but not his address. After three months they discovered an address for him in Brooklyn, but by now he was gone. To Schenectady, was the word. They never discovered him in Schenectady, however, or any place else as the years rolled on, until some operative who had clung doggedly to the search, never giving up, found out about the Florida home. From there he was traced to Long Island, where, at last, after some four years and six months, Car- tier's contacted him. He couldn't get all the details of the long hunt, and learned absolutely nothing of what was done by the searchers in 1928 and 1929. Umbrellas, packages, keys, and handbags are often left behind at Car- tier's, it seemed, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred they are restored to their owners the same day. As a mat- ter of fact, Cartier's had not one un- claimed article in their vaults the day Mr. Dreier called. The Dreier case, he was told, was most unusual. Safe A HARRIED hanker, whose nerves aren't what they used to be anyhow, hustled into a downtown lunch place, sat down, ordered one of the ready dishes, and then found he JANUARY 2. 1':32 had chosen one of those annoying tables that teeter. He signalled a waiter and complained. "This table is unsteady," he said. The waiter took hold of one corner of the table and jiggled it. He walked gravely to the opposite corner and jiggled it from there. He then dived underneath, where he spent some H b 0 " I ' moments. e came up eamlng. t s all right," he said. "It won't fall down." Statistics O UR readers just possibly might be interested in the published statis- tics of a certain mission in the lower East Side. They have a kind of defin- itive beauty, a kind of completeness. Gospel services held. .. .._ _.q. 536 Attendance ....................... .63,461 Free beds _ _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ..... 16,859 Free meals. .. .. . .. .. . . . . . . . .. 56, 1 78 Knelt for prayer..... .. 6,054 Keys to Gramercy G RAMERCY PARK was all dressed up for the Christmas holidays, with trees and lights, and wreaths everywhere, and lots of people walked over to see. All this jolly spirit didn't result in the Park's being thrown open to the public, however . You still had to have your key to get in. Since the fence was put up around the Park a few months more than a hundred years ago, keys have been issued to only about nine thousand persons or organizations. About two hundred keys are out now. The rule about keys laid down in the old days was that one would be issued for each "front" of land, a "front" being about twenty-two feet. Thus each of the sixty-six residents got one key. Lat- ) -J "Best two falls out of three, l'vir. Montague? Okay?"